Andy, The willet looked small compared to the many I have seen on the coast...but size is tough and looking at the range of the eastern mainly being coastal it probably is a western in retrospect. Thanks for the email and help. Nevertheless it is still a willet....great bird for Broome County! I will post more pics of this bird to my flickr account soon.
Dave Nicosia Johnson City NY ________________________________ From: Andy Guthrie <guthr...@gmail.com> To: david nicosia <daven1...@yahoo.com> Sent: Mon, August 16, 2010 3:08:15 PM Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Loggerhead Shrike Binghamton NY Hi Dave, thanks for passing on word of the Loggerhead Shrike - great bird, nice to know they still come through once in a while! Please consider submitting a report, or at least your nice photographs, to NYSARC (New York State Avian Records Committee) so the evidence will be part of the official record (http://www.nybirds.org/NYSARC/goodreport.htm). On your Willet - separation of the two subspecies can be difficult for many individuals, something I think tends to be obscured at times these days. That said, your bird strikes me as looking more like a juvenile Western Willet than an Eastern. It looks relatively pale overall, including an extensive pale gray-brown wash on the head, neck and upper breast, seems lanky with long legs and neck, and has a nicely tapered, two-toned bill. Of course individual photographs can sometimes be misleading, and intermediate looking birds may not always be separable... This website has a decent discussion of separating the two subspecies in juvenile plumage: http://shorebirder.blogspot.com/2008/08/western-willet-vs-eastern-willet.html Cheers, Andy Guthrie Hamlin, NY -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
